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Israel also admitted for the second time in a week its forces "acted improperly" in firing on Palestinians violating a curfew. Three children in the West Bank town of Qalqiliya were wounded, including a 9-year-old in critical condition with brain damage.

OPPPSSS I THINK I MADE A MISTAKE???

OF COURSE NOT!!! HATE MOTHERFUCKERS COWARDS, FUCK LEAVE PALESTINE ALONE YOU HAVE NO FUCKING LAND THERE.

--------------------Life does not have to be necessarily long. It just has to be good. Be wise. Peace, Love, Flower Power.

Palestinian witnesses and security officials said tanks fired after a curfew break arranged with Israeli authorities to allow high school students to take final exams. Apparently after seeing the students on the streets, others headed out to the market, Palestinians said.

--------------------Life does not have to be necessarily long. It just has to be good. Be wise. Peace, Love, Flower Power.

Soldiers opened fire on the children, the military said. Civil administration spokesman Maj. Peter Lerner confirmed the intention was to lift the curfew for students.On June 21, the army said its forces erred in killing four Palestinians, including three children, after a rumor spread the curfew had been briefly lifted.In Jerusalem, police said Thursday that two Jewish settlers, arrested on suspicion of involvement in a rampage in a West Bank village that left a Palestinian dead, have been released without being chargedA number of settlers went through the Palestinian village of Hawara on June 21, firing rifles randomly, witnesses said, after the funerals of five Israelis killed by a Palestinian infiltrator at the settlement of Itamar a day before.

--------------------Life does not have to be necessarily long. It just has to be good. Be wise. Peace, Love, Flower Power.

In reply to: On June 21, the army said its forces erred in killing four Palestinians, including three children, after a rumor spread the curfew had been briefly lifted.

What part of erred don't you understand? I never said innocents didn't get killed by both sides. There is a big difference between "erred" and some pussy homicide bombers deliberately killing innocents.

Are you not smart enough to grasp that?

--------------------You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

In reply to: In Jerusalem, police said Thursday that two Jewish settlers, arrested on suspicion of involvement in a rampage in a West Bank village that left a Palestinian dead, have been released without being charged

Furthermore, A country cannot control each and every citizen within its borders.

The fact remains.... homicide bombers are scumbags. If Israeli citizens started using the same tactics (bombs) I would say the same about them.

Bombers are cowards and will always remain so.

--------------------You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

In reply to:What part of erred don't you understand? I never said innocents didn't get killed by both sides. There is a big difference between "erred" and some pussy homicide bombers deliberately killing innocents.

I dont know..... shooting an unarmed child in the back sounds like "deliberately killing innocents" to me.

Really..? [EDITED BY JAMMER DUE TO PERSONAL FLAME] You know of Israelis who have strapped bombs to them selves and either climbed on a bus or entered a dance hall during a wedding reception and then detonated it? Perhaps you could provide a link to that story?

--------------------You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

it would be a joke to go all out and get rid of the palestinians. btw that land is not theirs, it was syrias (please correct if wrong). israel spread out its territory over conquered land that was used for terrorist bases. i think its totally fair they keep the land. then these palestinians pop up. anyways back to subject. you wipe out palestine, easy. israel is bigger than them and could crush them. then you look at the bigger picture:egypt, syria iran, and every other muslim/antisemetic nation out there turns there guns on israel. now thats like rhode island declaring war on the rest of the east coast and then some.

--------------------I'ts all a fucking lie! Everything written by me is fictional. I don't even exist!

You are wrong dubt, the palestinians didn't just pop up, they lived there for thousands of years and controlled all that is known as israel today. In 1947 700,000 palestinians were forced from thier homes by american backed jews. They murdered entire familys, bombed and bulldozed homes with people still inside, It was a very brutal attack. As the arabs were removed they were replaced by the thousands of jews that were being shipped into palestine (ethnic cleansing). In many cases they actualy lived in the dead arab built homes, which settlers still do today. Israel's offical statment was that 700,000 palestinians decided on thier own to leave thier homes and possessions to go live in refugee camps were many died of starvation and disease. From that point on they continued to brutalize,control, and steal land from palestine. Nearly 60 years of murdering, controling, stealing, discriminating, demeaning, unfair ocupation and were surprised that thier strapping bombs to themselves?

You're such a witty person. How can anyone fail to see the logic of your points.

Oh wait.... there isn't any.

--------------------You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity. What one person receives without working for another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for that my dear friend is the beginning of the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it. ~ Adrian Rogers

i didnt want to get involved but israeli's have done the bomb thing before... they also have quite a big and growing list of israeli terrorists... You can find all that via the Yahoo search engine.....

There both scumbags, war mongers..... fuck them all let the fucks kill themselves..... and when its all said and done let the survivors sort the mess out.

Palestinian suicide attacks have been singled out, overemphasised and isolated from their context in Israel's 35-year occupation of the Palestinian territories, the proper infrastructure of Palestinian terrorism.

Professional demonisers like Thomas Friedman work hard to persuade us of suicidal lies like the one claiming suicide bombers are "a whole new form of warfare" unique to Palestinians. I truly doubt whether the term "Kamikaze" is of Palestinian origin. There were no Palestinian suicide bombers around back in 1991, when Rajib Ghandi was assassinated by a suicide bomber; in fact, the person accused of launching more suicide attacks than anyone else is not Yassir Arafat (his direct involvement in such attacks may be an outright Israeli fabrication) but Velupillai Prabhakaran, who heads the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Talmud reminds us that people often accuse others of their own faults. Is this the case with Israel as well? Can Israel be seen as a suicide bomber? Well, the latter part of the term obviously holds true: reports of Israeli bulldozers digging mass graves in Jenin have not been confirmed yet, but the enormous scale of Israeli bombing in occupied territories hardly needs this evidence. During the British Mandate in Palestine (1917-1948), the Royal Army considered bombing Jenin from the air, but dropped the idea for humanitarian reasons; the Israeli army has now used F-16 jets, helicopters and airborne missiles against this city, while destroying dozens of houses as well as the entire water, sewage and electricity infrastructure by tanks and bulldozers.

But has Israel itself suicidal elements? We'll have to take a short survey of Palestinian suicide bombing to get to that.

Suicide Bombers Analysed

Demonisation successfully coats the suicide bombers with a satanic aura of ultimate evil, disabling any rational discussion of the subject. Suicide bombers are represented as a doomsday weapon, as a threat to world security, to civilisation itself (see, again, Thomas Friedman's column). It's high time to lift this aura.

In my previous column I argued that suicide itself is not considered a crime by most people. The major ideology of modern times, Nationalism, often praises sacrificing one's life for one's nation. Israel loves to praise itself for everything positive in Palestinian society ("we brought them prosperity" etc.) and to blame some "Arab spirit" for everything negative. But Palestinians' suicidal tendencies maybe have their roots not only in Islamic fundamentalism but also in Zionism. Israeli school children are raised on the myth of the Zionist officer Joseph Trumpeldor, whose last words were: "It is good to die for our country". Similarly, the first association Israeli soldiers had in mind for the Palestinians fighting to death in Jenin was the Zionist Masada myth, where besieged ancient Jews swore to die rather than surrender to the Romans.

Suicide bombers, as I argued before, are not different from any other weapon. They can be used against three kinds of targets: soldiers, settlers, and civilians inside Israel. Let's consider each of these cases.

Bombing Occupation Soldiers is LAWFUL

When acting against soldiers, the suicide bomber has international law on his side. Yes: international legislation acknowledges the right of occupied people to use force against their oppressors, both inside the occupied territories and outside them. Based upon the principles of the Hague International Convention of 1907 and confirmed in the Nuremberg Tribunal after World War II, this determination was essential to forestall Nazi claims that partisans, Ghetto fighters, and other underground resistance forces in the territories occupied by Germany had allegedly been "terrorists". In the Nuremberg Tribunal it was unequivocally set down that resistance fighters, including those who had struggled within Germany itself, acted in accordance with the regulations of international law.

A fact actually unheard of in the media.

Bombing Settlers in the Occupied Territories

Bombing civilians, however, is a crime. If Palestinians do it inside the occupied territories, the great question is what those civilians, also known as settlers, are doing there. Their presence in the occupied territories may not justify killing them, but it raises serious doubts as for who is responsible for it. Is it the Palestinians legitimately fighting occupation ? or is it rather Israel, that moves civilians into occupied territory contrary to international law, exposing them to Palestinian attacks? Israel now claims to be deporting Palestinian civilians from battle zones in order to protect them. Why does it let its own civilians live in these territories, which are one big battlefield?

In fact, extremist settlers like those in Hebron ? 500 settlers among 120.000 Palestinians in the heart of the city ? often refuse to be protected. When the army offers to install bullet-proof glass in their windows, they reject it, claiming the army should ensure their houses are not shot at instead of stopping the bullets at their windows. Is this not suicidal?

Bombing Civilians Inside Israel

Okay, this of course is totally illegal and immoral. But have you ever wondered how suicide bombers get into Israel? Not in a satanic rain like the frogs in Magnolia. In fact, they walk into Israel.

Walk??? ? Yes. They cross the imaginary Green Line between Israel and the occupied West Bank simply on foot, and then they take a lift, or a bus, or a taxi, to wherever they want to explode.

This may sound incredible, but it is true. There is no visible border between Israel and the West Bank.

Now the problem of intruders has been bothering humanity for quite a few millennia, from China to Berlin; the usual solution is expressed by the English term "fence". If Israel had wanted to stop suicide bombers, all it had to do is put a fence. This is Israel's weak spot the Palestinians have found. It's a very revealing weak spot.

Why does Israel not put up a fence? The construction itself is not a problem. There are quite sophisticated hi-tech fences nowadays. The Gaza Strip is surrounded by one, reducing intrusions to a zero level. A few weeks after the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon, a fence along the border was completed there too. So why not in the West Bank?

There are three reasons why Israel does not put a fence along the Green Line:

(A) First and foremost, as even Israeli politicians admit, it's "a political problem". A fence might be interpreted as a border. Israel is unwilling to give up the West Bank. Therefore, it rather lets its citizens die in suicide attacks. It's as simple as that.

(B) More specifically, the numerous Israeli settlements spread throughout the entire West Bank are a problem for such a fence. If the settlements are taken in, you have to take the surrounding Palestinian population too, and then what's the point. If you leave the settlements out, you solve only part of the problem.

The smaller part of the problem, actually. Israel cares much more about its 200.000 settlers in the West Bank than about its 6 million citizens inside the Green Line (indeed, most settlements are surrounded by a fence). Take this financial evidence: in the 1990s, the Israeli Government spent on every settler an average of 5,428 NIS a year. The national average per citizen was just 3,807 NIS. Israeli Arab citizens were worth much less: 2,402 NIS. The cheaper the citizen, the cheaper his life.

(C) One cannot ignore the propaganda profits. Israel uses terror attack on its citizens, especially on civilians inside the Green Line, to justify its ever more violent occupation and to endlessly expand its illegal settlements. Why build a simple fence, if you can occasionally sacrifice a few civilians in return for a huge propaganda benefit for the occupation and the settlements? Text-only printable version of this article

Ran HaCohen was born in the Netherlands in 1964 and grew up in Israel. He has a B.A. in Computer Science, an M.A. in Comparative Literature and is currently working on his PhD thesis. He teaches in the Tel-Aviv University's Department of Comparative Literature. He also works as a literary translator (from German, English and Dutch), and as a literary critic for the Israeli daily Yedioth Achronoth. Mr. HaCohen's work has been published widely in Israel. "Letter from Israel" appears occasionally at Antiwar.com.

Archived columns

Israel ? A Suicide Bomber?4/12/02

Suicidal Truths4/5/02

The Auschwitz Logic4/1/02

Against Negotiations3/28/02

Occupation Vs. Democracy 2/26/02

Terrorism Vs. Occupation2/15/02

Peace Now. Now?! Well, Maybe Later2/8/02

David Horowitz Rewrites the Past1/23/02

Say No to a Palestinian 'State'11/13/01

Who Cares About the Palestinians?10/16/01

Dancing in the Streets9/21/01

The Ideology of Occupation9/4/01

The Chosen Pariah7/31/01

Mideast War ? Really Imminent?7/24/01

The State of the Army, Part Two6/22/01

Building Settlements, Killing Peace5/26/01

The State of the Army, Part 15/8/01

Israeli Left Sells Out Peace4/13/01

Barak's Legacy3/23/01

Looking in the Mirror

So Thomas Friedman is right to argue that by using suicide bombers the Palestinians have found Israel's weak spot. This weak spot is the policy of occupation and settlements. Had Israel agreed to end occupation and dismantle the settlements, as international decisions demand, it could simply put a fence along the Green Line and stop suicide bombers. But a fence would harm Israel's settlements policy, and this is why Israel does not build one. This behaviour, on a national level, is suicidal: the State of Israel knowingly sacrifices its own civilians for the Molech called settlements. The Palestinian suicide bombers are thus but a mirror image of the Israeli policy, a policy which is both "suicidal" (sacrificing one's own civilians) and murderously bombing.

Well, thanks to Perplexed and Indicaz. They have supplied the relevant RESEARCH to give the rest of you the rational premises necessary to understand WHY there is such violence between Israel and Palastine.

I am still working on my little history lesson for the rest of you, but I suggest looking at the key areas Perplexed and Indicaz have provided. Especialy since our government officials have involved us in this violence from the very begining; that begining was in 1917.

Yes, innocent people do die. Here is the basic difference: Israelis do targetted killings and Palestinians do terrorists attack. Why do children get killed? Why are children doing in the battlefield anyway. The curfew was set up there for a reason. I am not saying that the Israelis are right for shooting a kid but the Palestinians can't blame the Israelis either. That curfew was set because it was for the safety of both parties! Do not leave your kids after the curfew because that curfew was set to protect you from the shooting and battles that veyr much occur in those hours.

" 11 kids died along with a top Hamas leader after Israeli Defense Forces bomb suspect's home base. " Once again, what are kids doing around a Hamas leader in the middle of a huge conflict where the chances of that person being attacked are fairly high? Would you let your kids be baby sat or even just hang out with the biggest terrorist leader in your city? Think about it.

--------------------we stay because we believe
we leave because we're disillusioned
we come back because we're lost
we die because we're committed
- che guevarra